


After-Party

by ratbox



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Angst, Fire, Friends to Enemies, Halloween, House Party, Michael Mell Has Two Moms, Party, Post-Halloween Party, Smoking, Suicidal Thoughts, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-18 01:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20631155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratbox/pseuds/ratbox
Summary: michael comes home from the halloween party, clearly bothered.his mothers are concerned for their son.





	After-Party

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first bmc oneshot i've written in over a year. i got the idea at random, made a little comic, and thus this was born.  
also! jasmine and eva are just my little headcanon names for michael's moms. so, uh.. yeah. enjoy!

Michael had returned home from Jake's Halloween party. He pulled up into the driveway, and stayed there, recounting everything that had happened that night. Not only had Jeremy spoken to him in the first time in months, but it ended with Jeremy calling him a loser. Claiming he was jealous that he had a SQUIP, and Michael didn't. That, of course, wasn't the case... how could Michael ever be jealous of something with the capability to throw someone into an asylum? Not only did Jeremy and his friendship end in what Michael would call a heated argument... but the party seemed to end in a heated way, too. Michael had only narrowly avoided the fire. He'd stayed in the bathroom for basically the entire rest of the night. It was Jake himself who knocked on the bathroom door and informed him of the fire. Michael had debated just staying inside, but couldn't find the means to. What good would have come with him offing himself in the bathroom of Jake Dillinger's house as it was set ablaze? Maybe news coverage, that's about it. Nobody mourns losers. 

He got out of his car, and slowly walked up the driveway, and onto the sidewalk that lead to the front door of his house. Both of his mothers were come. Eva, a tall, Caucasian with short blonde hair (Michael had always said she looked like Ellen. Somehow, she didn't see it). And Jasmine, Michael's birth-mother. Biological. She looked a lot like him, besides her hair, which was cut into a wavy bob. The two were standing in the kitchen. Jasmine heard the door open, and poked out. "Hey, Michael." She said, currently drying a dish. Her wife watched from the island.

Michael didn't say anything.

Jasmine knew something was up. She could smell smoke as soon as Michael entered the house. She didn't question it yet. All she questioned, was the frown that was evident on Michael's face. "Are you okay, honey?"

"I'm fine." Michael replied simply.

"Michael, there's clearly something bothering you." Jasmine said. "You can talk to us."

Michael shook his head, ignoring the tears that had formed in his eyes. "I said I'm fine!" He snapped.

"Mich--"

"Just leave me alone." Without hesitation, he rushed up to his room, leaving his mother's dazed and confused. Jasmine looked to her wife, and walked over to her, putting down the dish she had been working on. She sighed, pushing up her glasses... yet another thing she shared with her son.

"Micha's been acting off, Eva." She said. "He won't talk to me."

"I know." Eva ran a hand through her hair. "Come to think of it... do you think maybe something happened between him and Jeremy? He hasn't been around him at all in months. Or spoken about him."

"You're right. I haven't heard anything about him. Do you think they're fighting?" Jasmine asked.

Eva shrugged, walking over to her wife. She stood behind her, and raised her hands to her shoulders, gently massaging them. "Those two have never fought before."

"I know." Jasmine raised a hand up, putting it on top of one of the ones that was massaging her shoulders. "Michael's never been like this. He's usually so upbeat, and excited about everything. Happy. I've never seen him this upset. I'm worried. Should I call a therapist?"

"No, honey. Don't jump to that conclusion yet. That's up to Michael. If he wants to talk to a professional, then we can look into it... I think right now, he just needs to talk to us. We're his mothers, we should be able to help him with whatever's going on... right?" Eva said.

Jasmine nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right. I'm going to finish up here and then see what's going on."

Eva kissed the side of her wife's head. "Good plan."

Meanwhile, Michael was up in his room. He had lit a blunt for himself, wanting to relax. He was working on smoking that, and looking through old pictures of him, and Jeremy. Tears fell down his face as he scrolled through, deleting as he went along. "Not important. Not important. Why would any of these be important?" He mumbled to himself, pausing on a picture of him and Jeremy on Hanukkah. Michael didn't celebrate Hanukkah, but he did for Jeremy. Jeremy meant a lot to him. So, he'd help with the festivities. That year, he bought Jeremy a sweater, that with a picture of a Menorah on it that said: 'Let's Get Lit!'. Michael had the same one. They wore them all throughout the eight days. But now, that meant nothing. He deleted the picture, and kept scrolling through, deleting anything that even mentioned Jeremy Heere.

One thing he couldn't delete, was Jeremy's Instagram. He'd forgotten that he'd turned on post notifications for him. He clicked on the notification, and looked at the post. A picture of him, holding up a 'rock-on' sign. While in the background, everyone else was doing their own drunken things. 

'**_FUN PARTY! THANKS @Jake.Dillinger02 FOR THE INVITE!_**'

Fun party. He supposed Jeremy left before he did. Because soon, Jeremy's post was being flooded with comments about the fire. 

Michael's session was interrupted by Jasmine knocking at the door. He quickly put out his blunt, which was a total waste, and looked over to the door as his mother spoke through it. "Michael? Can we talk?" She asked. "You can't keep whatever's happening away from us for forever, Micha..."

"Fine." Michael finally gave in. He needed the support.

Jasmine opened the door, and stood in the doorway for a moment. She looked to her son, ignoring the smell of weed that had filled the room. She simply turned on his fan, and walked over to the window, opening it up to move it outside. It wasn't that she didn't care that Michael smoked pot, it was just that she knew she couldn't stop him. She looked back to Michael once all that was said, and done, with completely sincerity in her expression. "What's going on, honey? You've seemed... off recently."

Michael averted his gaze from his mother's own. "It's not important."

"It seems pretty important." His mother retorted. She walked over, and sat beside him on the bed. She could smell the smoke more clearly now... not from the weed. Michael smelled like a campfire. She hadn't watched the news, and knew nothing about the party besides the fact that Michael was going. "Micha, talk to me, baby." She put a hand on her son's shoulder, watching him with sadness and worry in her eyes.

Michael hesitated for a few minutes. He didn't want to say anything, but... this was his mother. He couldn't keep things from her for very long. "It's Jeremy." Michael said. "We haven't spoken in weeks. And suddenly, tonight at the party, he talks to me. Calls me a loser." He explains. "There's more to the story, but... you wouldn't understand."

Jasmine furrowed her brows. She chuckled faintly. "Listen, I may not know what you're talking about, but... you can still just... talk to me."

Michael looked down, thinking of a way on how to talk about this. "Well, basically. There's these... things. They're called SQUIPs." 

"Squids?" Michael's mom cocked her head.

"No. SQUIPs. They're a, uh... a computer. In a pill--" Michael shook his head. "Never mind. I'll sound crazy."

"No, no." Jasmine shook her head, moving her hand to hold onto Michael's. "Like I said, even if I don't understand... I'll still listen."

Michael nodded slowly. "Okay. Well, Jeremy wanted one. To be "cool", and uh... he wanted to get this girl, Christine, to like him. So, he bought one. This SQUIP thing, it's... supposed to make you popular. To make you what you weren't already. Like a... sadistic life-coach." Michael continued to explain. "This thing... it controls everything he does. What he wears, what he says..."

Michael's mom was trying to follow along still, nodding every once and a while.

"Suddenly, Jeremy's popular. And... he's dating Brooke Lohst--"

"But, I thought you said that he wanted, uh... Christy?"

"Christine." Michael corrected. "And, yes, but... what I think is that, the SQUIP made it seem like... Brooke was a stepping stone to Christine."

"Got ya." 

"The SQUIP can block certain people out of their host's vision. And, I never thought something like this would ever happen to me, but... Jeremy agreed to let the SQUIP block me out. He couldn't see me. This was all explained at the party tonight... things were civil for a while, and then... they weren't. Suddenly I'm the loser. I'm being replaced with some... cooler version of me, or whatever." Michael shook his head, blinking back the tears in his eyes.

Jasmine blinked a few times, not because she was crying, but because she was entirely confused. "Okay, you're right. I didn't understand a word of that... too much technology. But," She gently rubbed the back of Michael's hand with her thumb. "I am so, so sorry, Micha. You and Jeremy have never fought..."

Michael sighs. He lets go of his mother's hand, and moves to grab the blunt he'd started on before. He re-lights it, and takes a hit. His mother watches, and shakes her head.

"Please don't self-medicate with weed all night." She said.

"Okay."

"I mean it."

"Okay." 

"Michael..."

Michael rolls his eyes, and puts it out again. "Okay. Fine." He paused for a few moments, before speaking again. "There was a fire at the party tonight?"

"_What_?" His mother's eyes widened. "Michael, this should have been the first thing you told me... oh, my God. Are you okay? Michael, are you--"

"I'm fine, mom." Michael wouldn't tell her about what he thought about doing in the bathroom. He wouldn't tell her about the suicidal thoughts. That would only worry her more. He definitely didn't want to have to talk to a psychiatrist about this stuff. "I promise. I got out just as the fire was starting."

"Oh, thank god. Did everyone else get out okay?"

"Not sure. I'm hoping so. I left before the paramedics came." Michael said.

"Oh, my God... Honey, I'm so, so glad you're okay. I'm so glad. I don't know what I would do without you. Your mother and I would be completely devastated."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not going anywhere, then." Michael smiled faintly. "It was a long day, mom. I kind of just want to be alone for a bit right now. You can tell mum about this if you want. I just... want some alone time right now."

Jasmine nodded, and got up slowly. "Okay. Listen, Michael... if there's anything you need, we're always going to be here for you. You know that."

"Yeah, I know."

"Good. Good, okay... I love you, so much, Michael. And I'm so glad that you're okay. I'm sure that this thing with Jeremy will pass, you just need to give it time." She kissed the top of her son's head. "Your mother and I will be downstairs if you need us. There's some leftover casserole in the fridge if you'd like some warmed up?"

"I'm okay. I ate at the party." No he didn't, but he didn't have much of an appetite.

"Okay. Well, I love you."

"Love you, too."

Jasmine hesitated for a moment, before leaving the room. He closed his door behind her. Michael sighed softly, thankful to be alone. He re-lit his blunt for the third time, and started on it again. He picked up his phone, starting to scrolled through pictures... and he let himself cry.


End file.
